@October 2014. We made it from Myanmar to India overland (yea!). Yes we did need that special permit to cross the border from the Myanmar side (at Tamu) (described in this thread). We got the permit from the Seven Diamond Express company, and this took 12 days (and $100). Make sure you get a hard-copy printout to carry with you. Note: we got our India visas in Yangoon, but we should have done this in Thailand, because the Yangoon embassy is not user-friendly, and there's not much to do near Yangoon to kill so much time. Get the India visa in advance and DO NOT say that you plan to cross into Manipur state (the border at Moreh) because we know that India will deny you a visa for this, as Manipur state is considered to be too dodgy (the road to Imphal was fine, just heavily militarized with many checkpoints). And Nagaland is Great... Also, note that the border is closed on Sundays and holidays. Happy trails!@

@Hey people! I crossed the border from Myanmar to India on the 23rd December. Just wanted to say that the information on this post was very valuable, thank you very much. I used Seven Diamonds too. They told me they are receiving about 10 foreigners a week applying for the permit. It's getting more and more common, but still have to pay 100 dollars...

One other thing, I think it worth it to go by boat from Monywa to Kaleywa instead of using the road. It's quiet a nice journey. The bad point is that there's just one boat a day, at 4 am. But the boat is there from 10 pm or so the day before, so you can sleep inside if the mosquitoes let you.

From Kaleywa there's the minivan to Tamu at 5 pm. They ask for 15000 but you can easily make it 10.000. Locals are paying 3.000, so anyways it's a lot.@

Here's a detailed report on how we managed to cross the border overland, from Moreh in India, to Tamu in Burma, in December 2014.

1° Getting the visas:

We got our Indian and Burmese tourist visas in Kathmandu, Nepal, without mentioning on our visa applications that we wanted to cross the border overland.

2° First attempt without going through a travel agency:

In mid-September (three months before crossing the border), we sent an e-mail to the Burmese embassy in New Delhi, asking if they could grant us a special permission to cross the border overland. We received a reply, saying that if we wanted to enter Myanmar by road, we needed to submit the following documents to the embassy: - passport copy - application letter - what kind of purpose enter Myanmar by road - what kind of vehicle to cross border area and that vehicle's photo - day by day planning in Myanmar (detailed itinerary) - dates of arrival and departure The e-mail from the embassy also said that they would submit these documents to the "headquarters" and that they would inform us when they receive a reply from "the capital". We sent all of the documents, with full details... and then heard nothing back for a long time. Because they were not replying to our e-mails anymore, and time was running out, we eventually decided we had to go through a travel agency... Some weeks later though (when we had already abandoned this option), we did receive the following e-mail from the embassy: "Dear... I've responded from capital for you. You have to contact Ministry of Hotel and Tourism: 0095 67406105, 0095 1371286, e-mail address: mtt.mhts.agm@gmail. Guide from Ministry of Hotel & Tourism of Myanmar will provide for your trip. And you need to discuss with them and submit your detail planning trip before start. After contact and discuss with them, you can apply visa at Myanmar Embassy in New Delhi when you get the permission letter. Myanmar Embassy will be issued you when receive the permission." So in the end: the Burmese embassy was simply telling us to contact MTT directly... In the meantime, we had already started the procedure with a travel agency, so here's how that went...

3° Other attempt with a travel agency:

We contacted many different travel agencies. Here are some replies we received:

- Exotic Myanmar Travel and tours: 50 US dollars per person for the permit. No guide or vehicle needed, no other charges.

- Seven diamonds: 100 US dollars per person for the permit. No guide or vehicle needed, no other charges.

- Shan Yoma Travel and tours: they wanted us to take a guide and vehicle – 660 US dollars per person for the permit + car + driver. Definite no-no.

- Ananda Travel: said they would come back to us but never did.

- Gulliver Travels and Tours: they didn't seem aware of the procedure.

- Phoenix Voyages: said they don't handle these kinds of requests.

Note: you do NOT need a guide to cross the border, or to travel through the northeast states of India or the region around Tamu in Burma! So it all came down to Exotic Myanmar Travel and Tours or Seven diamonds... Because Exotic took a lot of time to answer our e-mails, and we were already very short on time, we went with Seven Diamonds (they were always super-fast in replying and generally very honest). If you want to use them too, you can contact Mar Swe at this address: sdm.marketing2009@gmail.com. We sent our itinerary in Burma, scans of our passports, Indian and Burmese visas to Seven diamonds. The procedure took a little more than 15 days... They told us they had a contact person in Tamu who would meet us at the border on the day we wanted to cross it, with the permit – and we would simply give him the money in cash! So no need to pay anything in advance. So that was that!

4° Physically getting to Moreh

From Darjeeling, we took a shared jeep to NJP (New Jalpaiguri) – should cost 150 or 200 INR per person, 3 or 4 hours journey. From NJP, we took a night train to Guwahati – left at 22:10 and arrived the next morning at 7 am. From Guwahati, we took a night bus to Imphal – leaving at 3 pm on the same day, and arriving the next morning around 10 am – 20 hours journey or so. We slept in Imphal in a double room for 200 INR total. From Imphal, the next day, we took a shared taxi to Moreh, which took about 4 hours, and cost 250 INR per person. Here, the car was stopped at various checkpoints. Twice, we had to get out of the car and register, plus we went through a long interrogatory – but nothing to be afraid of! In Moreh, we slept in a shabby hotel – double room for 400 INR.

5° Crossing the border

From the center of Moreh, you can walk to the police station where you can get your exit stamp from the Indian authorities. From the police station, you can walk to the actual border (1.4 kilometers ahead). Note: as foreigners, you have to go to Gate 1, not gate 2 which is only for Indian and Burmese nationals. There, some Indian military will check your passports and then you're out of India! Some 150m later you'll see a bridge, which you cross, and the Burmese immigration office is on the left hand side right after the bridge. If you use seven diamonds, don't panic if they don't have your permit at the immigration office – just tell them you used seven diamonds travel agency and the immigration staff will call seven diamonds' contact person in Tamu, who will come to the immigration office by moped with your permit! This contact person from seven diamonds is also the guy you're going to give the money to, for the permits.

6° Physically getting to Mandalay

The contact person from Seven diamonds took the both of us and our backpacks on his moped, to go to the center of Tamu. Unfortunately, the bus to Monywa wasn't running on that day, and even though there was a bus to Kale, we didn't want to spend 30 dollars on a hotel in Kale... so we decided to take a minivan which drove during the night, directly to Mandalay for 25 000 kyats each (very expensive, but less expensive than having to pay for two buses + a hotel night). The minivan left Tamu at 2 pm and arrived the next day at 7 am in Mandalay. Woop woop!

В посте выше было указано: "From the center of Moreh, you can walk to the police station where you can get your exit stamp from the Indian authorities. From the police station, you can walk to the actual border (1.4 kilometers ahead). Note: as foreigners, you have to go to Gate 1, not gate 2 which is only for Indian and Burmese nationals. There, some Indian military will check your passports and then you're out of India"